{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"VC-Backed Hardware Design Collaboration is the (All) Spice of Life","description":"In this unique episode of the Moore\u2019s Lobby podcast, we get to hear from not only the technologists and executives behind the company but the investor who is helping them make their dreams a reality. As an electrical engineer, Chrissy Meyer had spent years working in product design on large projects at Apple, including the Apple iPod Nano and Touch. She is all too familiar with the outdated methods of hardware collaboration and design reviews\u2014printed schematics, highlighters, and engineers huddled around a conference room table.  According to Kyle Dumont, a first-time entrepreneur as Allspice CTO, their goal is centered \u201caround making it easy to build a workflow and collaboration process for electronics designs.\u201d In his earlier career working in hardware at both large and small companies, he also \u201cbecame pretty frustrated with how difficult it was to collaborate on our electronics designs.\u201d  Valentina Ratner, CEO of Allspice, goes on to explain that the industry is \u201ctrying to build colonies in Mars, and I don't think we're going to get there with Google Sheets and PDFs and screenshots.\u201d  In her current role as a partner at Root Ventures investing in early-seed tech startups, the engineer inside Meyer had a \u201cvisceral\u201d reaction when Ratner and Dumont explained their vision to bring Git-style collaboration software to the hardware world. Meyer explains that \u201cthere was never a doubt in my mind that this problem that they were describing was very real. Because the truth is I had lived it for 15 years.\u201d Meyer said, \u201cI had to take off my engineering hat for a quick second and say, okay, reign in the excitement. Yes, this is a fantastic product for an engineer. Is this a great investment?...the truth is, there are far fewer electrical engineers than there are software developers.\u201d With the backing of Root Ventures, Ratner and Dumont founded Allspice and quickly got to work. As a first-time entrepreneur and CEO, Ratner admits that she had to learn a lot quickly because \u201cthere are just so many unknowns.\u201d   Reflecting on some early lessons, Ratner shares some interesting advice for fellow tech entrepreneurs:  \u201cIt's less about convincing anyone and more about finding the people that already believe in the version of the world that you're trying to build.\u201d Other highlights of this round-table discussion include: -Meyers\u2019 belief that \u201c'there's this common misconception that in order to approach VCs, you need to have a fully polished pitch deck, and you need a financial model and forecasts and projections.\u201d -Insights on one of the favorite features of Allspice: the ability to run digital, asynchronous hardware design reviews -Where Meyer thinks hardware and software companies are going to win in the future   ","author_name":"Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits","author_url":"https:\/\/www.allaboutcircuits.com\/podcast\/","html":"